Stoke Hammond 10, 22nd May 2013

Another sunny evening greeted the 19 riders who turned out for this evening '10'. On the downside, the wind was blowing quite strongly! The event was also the NBRC Championship '10', for which the six NBRC riders were eligible. As expected, the section leading up to the dual carriageway was a little twitchy with a gusty side wind, but once on the dual carriageway, this translated into a wonderfully assisting tailwind - most of us took advantage of this, but the rider in front of me, who was riding a medium fixed gear, seemed to be twiddling away like a demon! The road surface on this very new road has suffered recently, with numerous small but deep potholes having appeared. I contrived to ride through one of these, which didn't do any damage to the bike or to my ride, but wasn't very nice! I must learn to steer a bit more accurately. Of course, it came as no surprise to me that the return leg was really tough, though once off the dual carriageway the going was quite a bit better, albeit with several severe twitches as I passed gaps in the sheltering hedgerows. I finished with 24:09 - not a brilliant time, but quite a bit better than my previous outing on this course when I recorded 24:40! Once again I survived without back pain, so I guess that is past me for the time being.  On the whole, I'm a bit more optimistic about getting my training and racing back on an even keel.